1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software and mobile devices. More specifically, it relates to software for displaying content from an app on a lock screen of a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
One drawback of current app execution on mobile devices is related to how app content, such as notifications, is communicated to users. As is presently known to users of apps on mobile devices, the most prevalent way for mobile apps today to engage or communicate with a user from outside the app (i.e., while the user does not have the app open or executing on the device) is through a mobile notification. Conventionally, a mobile notification is a combination of an icon (or an icon/text combination) representing the app that appears either in a “notification bar” located at the top of the home screen of a mobile device or, in another embodiment, in the center of the lock screen of a mobile device.
FIG. 1 shows a mobile device 102 having a display 104 showing a lock screen 106. At the bottom of lock screen 106 is a notification bar 108 which shows icons indicating notifications from apps when the device is in lock screen mode. As noted above, these icons convey minimal information to the user and are often ignored. Presently, they are the only way for an app to display any content to the user when the device is in lock screen mode.
Limiting such notifications (which are essentially communications to a user when an app is closed) to a single icon limits user interaction with the app; the user sees the same mobile notification from an app regardless of the nature or importance of the communication from the app. For example, a calendaring app presently has to show the same notification (on a lock screen or home screen) for a routine weekly meeting as it would for an emergency alert or urgent appointment. The nature of one notification is more important than the other but the user sees the same graphical icon/text for both.
Furthermore, notification icons from different mobile apps may also look similar and some are nearly identical, making them difficult to distinguish and set apart from each other. In addition, because the notification icon itself is not interactive, the user has to perform additional steps to engage with the notification content, for example, tapping on the notification to launch the app that sent it. As a result, many users simply dismiss conventional notifications altogether.
Another conventional tool for addressing communications from apps displayed on a home screen of a device is the use of home screen widgets. As known in the art, these are app components that can be placed on a home screen of a device, but similar to notifications, they provide limited interaction capabilities, such as music player controls, or a combination of text and images that have to be clicked in order to open the corresponding app in order to interact with the content displayed on the home screen.
As noted, mobile app notifications are typically a static image. Because this content is neither dynamic nor interactive, conventional notifications do not perform well in capturing user attention or generating user interaction. It would be desirable to be able to provide descriptive, media-rich, and potentially interactive content, including notifications, to mobile app users on a device lock screen or home screen even when the app is closed.